Barbadian Lecturer Joins Ocean Security Board

by AirBourne / August 21st, 2014

Ocean Security International (OSI) announces Professor W. Andy Knight, Director of the Institute of International Relations of The University of the West Indies, has agreed to serve on the OSI Scientific and Academic Board so as to facilitate and coordinate OSI´s future work in the Caribbean.

OSI is a key global non-governmental organization that works towards resolving major challenges impacting the world’s oceans and coastal areas, which affect the security, health and welfare of the entire world population. The organisation believes that conservation of the planet’s largest part, the oceans, is a prerequisite for global economic, environmental, energy, food and health security. OSI aims to be a seamless link to unite inter-governmental organizations, governments, the business sector and civil society in a global fight to preserve all elements of the ocean. It does so by bringing together leaders from all walks of life to help with the fight for the oceans.

W. Andy Knight is also Professor and former Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. A Barbadian by birth, Professor Knight has had a distinguished career as an academic and scholar in Canada, culminating in his heading the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He was seconded to The UWI in 2013 and played a significant role in the establishment of the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean in June this year.

He serves as Advisory Board Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Welfare of Children and was a Governor of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) from 2007 to 2012. Professor Knight co-edited Global Governance journal from 2000 to 2005 and was Vice Chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS).

Knight has written and edited several books, book chapters and journal articles on various aspects of multilateralism, global governance and peace, and United Nations reform. His recent books include: The Routledge Handbook of the Responsibility to Protect (with Frazer Egerton) -Routledge 2012; Towards the Dignity of Difference: Neither ‘end of History’ Nor ‘clash of Civilizations’ (with Mojtaba Mahdavi) – Ashgate 2012; and Global Politics (with Tom Keating) – Oxford University Press 2010. His work cuts across international relations, international law and global governance and is known for challenging the embedded orthodoxies of contemporary multilateralism. A much sought-after analyst, Professor Knight has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada – the highest honour afforded to Canadian academics.